March 31, 2017 Legislative Update:

"A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don't have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed."

- Nelson Mandela

HB2244This Tuesday, the Senate Appropriations Committee heard HB2244 which was a strike-everything bill that seeks to require that all signatures gathered for citizen’s initiatives in the future would have to comply with the “Strict Compliance” legal standard instead of “Substantial Compliance” as is currently the law. HB2244 will make achieving the ballot much more difficult and more expensive. And, of course, that is an issue for future initiatives regarding the Cannabis industry. This bill passed out of committee with all 6 Republicans voting in favor and all four Democrats voting against it. Next, this will be heard on the floor of the Senate where it will only fail if a couple of the Senate Republicans join the Senate Democrats in voting against the bill. Look for an AMMA PAC Action Alert early next week. HB2258Also on Tuesday, anti-cannabis HB2258 was heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee. This bill was thankfully defeated on a four to four vote with two absent members. The vote went on party lines with the four Republicans voting in favor of the bill, but with two Republicans missing the vote. During the committee hearing, Senator Debbie Lesko and Senator Steve Montenegro both had amendments they wanted to offer, in the end, Senator Lasko’s strike everything amendment was allowed like had been done in committee the previous week and Senator Montenegro decided to withdraw his amendment which would have limited dispensaries from moving outside of their original CHAAs. The Montenegro amendment would have also required that newly issued licenses would be required to open within six months of the license issuance. This bill being killed by the Senate Democrats was a huge victory for the cannabis industry and for the AMMA PAC.SB1236This Wednesday in the House Appropriations Committee, SB1236 (which originally was a bill to issue a report on the circumstances of over-prescription of psychotropic drugs to foster children) was hijacked by Rep. Michelle Ugenti-Rita in a last minute strike everything bill that again seeks to kill the initiative process for voters in Arizona. Even though this bill in its previous version was already killed earlier this year, Rep. Ugenti-Rita submitted the striker as another attempt to limit Arizona’s citizen initiative process.On Wednesday, Rep. Tony Rivero did not appear in committee and therefore was not present to vote in favor of SB1236. His absence changed the committee breakdown from 9 Republicans and 5 Democrats to only 8 Republicans and 5 Democrats. Also in this committee, Rep. Heather Carter refused to vote yes on SB1236 after her Republican colleagues refused to hear an amendment that she had offered to address some of her concerns with the bill.During debate on SB1236, the many opposition groups to the bill that were in attendance were stifled and Rep. Don Shooter (the chairman of the committee) limited debate against the bill by stating that only two opposition groups could speak.In the end, SB1236 was passed with a vote of 5 against and 7 in favor with all Republicans voting for the bill except for Rep. Rivero who was not present and Rep. Carter who voted against the bill without her amendment.SB1337Also on in Wednesday's House Appropriations Committee the Industrial Hemp bill SB1337 was passed on a vote of 12 in favor and only one against. This bill is headed to the House floor, hopefully on its way to being signed into law by Governor Ducey. Senator Sonny Borrelli, the bill’s main sponsor started his speech by saying that hemp is “rope not dope” and continued by saying that cotton growers like the idea of industrial hemp for many reasons, including that it is impervious to insects, uses nine times less water than cotton and a farmer can get nine crops per year. Next, Senator Lisa Otondo spoke to the merits of industrial hemp by saying that it would be a good crop to conserve water in Arizona and give another option to farmers other than cotton, She continued that in places like Yuma hemp would replenish the soil for farmers who even wish to grow produce when not growing hemp. The industrial hemp bill has been a shining example of bipartisan support throughout the process this session and may be the first step toward legislative understanding of the cannabis industry in the future. ​